IE Blog Europe & CIS

Sevtap Bas is the new IE representative in Turkey

Dear Readers,

It is my pleasure to inform you that IE has now a representative in Turkey, one of the most promising economies within the European region. It is Sevtap Bas, a 32-year-old Turkish woman, but born in Sweden.

Sevtap is an intelligent, good-looking and energetic. She likes practicing all sort of sports and enjoys travelling. No surprise she has launched and founded a niche travelling agency that offers special interest traveling packages to adventurous travelers. It is the only agency of its kind in Turkey.

In her new role as the IE Turkish representative, Sevtap will be in charge of developing the local market for IE. Her goal in the next coming years is to develop new alliances with top local companies as well as international corporations based in the country. She will also be in charge of assisting candidates of all levels, from Bachelors, Masters to Executive Education programs, interested in pursuing a degree at IE.

Fluent in three languages, Sevtap has more than 10 years of professional experience. Apart from her entrepreneurial ventures, she has worked for consulting companies, including PWC. In 2006, she graduated from the IE IMBA.

She is based in Istanbul, but will travel often to other cities in Turkey to organize IE events for candidates and partners as well as to build a strong corporate network. In case you´d like to contact her directly, please write to Turkey@ie.edu

In the name of the entire IE crowd, I´d like to give Sevtap my warmest welcome,

Cheers,
Deise

Jeremy Bedzow

The New York Times featured IE student Jeremy Bedzow as an example of an MBA who went off the beaten path and decide to pursue an experience working in a social enterprise.

Jeremy joined a team of IE students in Madrid that helped Microsoft develop a model program to provide training to prepare young people in Saudi Arabia for jobs in finance and IT.

Known as ITCAN Academy, a pun on the Arabic word for perfection, itqan, the course recruited 100 university students, all of whom had to be Saudi nationals. According to Sultan Al-Sahli, a spokesman for Microsoft in Riyadh, at the end of the two-month training period, 75 percent of the trainees had found jobs with monthly salaries ranging from 7,000 to 13,000 Saudi riyals, or $1,800 to $3,500 — well above the average wage.

The company also arranged for Jeremy to travel to Saudi Arabia to observe the program first hand, and to gather data that will be useful when the program expands.

Read the full story to learn more about Jeremy’s experience.

Simply Seven by Erik Schlie

Erik Schlie, IE Business School’s Associate Dean and Professor of Marketing and General Management, has teamed up with Jörg Rheinboldt and Niko Waesche to write Simply Seven, a practical guide to Internet business for students, entrepreneurs and executives.

 The name of the book is derived from the idea that there are seven business building blocks which form the foundation of all Internet business models. Chapter by chapter, the book guides the reader through the lessons learned by each business module: Skype for services, Blizzard Entertainment for subscriptions, Amazon.com for retail, Google for advertising, eBay for commissions and Apple for license sales.

 Click here to read about the book in  more detail and to place your order!

Liviu Nedef

Liviu Nedef, a student in the April 2011 intake of the International MBA, shares his experiences so far at IE Business School in Madrid.

Why did you decide to do an MBA at this stage of your career?

I decided to do an MBA because I wanted to get a better understanding of business. A good MBA should be designed in such a way to allow you to develop your career to its fullest potential and at an accelerated pace, that’s what I signed up for. Don’t get me wrong, I was enjoying my job prior to the MBA, but my tasks and knowledge were very focused and I knew that an MBA would give me a broader view of business.

How do you think your MBA will contribute to your success?

I think first of all it will diversify my skills set and allow me to position myself  better in the tough job market we face nowadays. An MBA helps you see the big picture and at the same time understand the details of the day-to-day challenges one has to deal with in the real business world. I am also confident it will help me open new doors for more responsibility.

How would you describe IE culture?

One of the things IE is best known for is the incredible cultural diversity of its students and I really wanted to be a part of this type of international learning experience: in my class of 50 students there are more than 30 nationalities and you can benefit from each of your colleagues’background and experience. You can also get really cool advice for places to visit or new food to try!

Read more…